Advice before purchasing

[kwest]

Hi I'm new here and would be grateful for any advice please.

I'm looking to purchase an X reg 1.7 Puma, seller has it advertised at £795 (V. Cheap) accident write off 9 years ago, repaired and back on the road with same owner for 2 years and present owner for 7 years.

Anyho, took it for a drive tonight and I have fallen in love with it. It has a few niggles I need advice on which are as follows:

Passenger window sticks and has to be pushed up manually.
Air bag light permanently on.
Heater controls - when set to cold come out hot on all settings.
Air con not working.

Any ideas on roughly what these will cost to repair, i really want it but have to persuade my hubby it's not gonna cost me a bomb to repair.

Thanks in advance

 

[quest63]

Hi there welcome aboard I think you have made a good decision to come here prior to buying :thumbs:

To begin with there are no shortage of Puma's so at the moment just be happy to have fallen in love with Puma's rather than being fixed on the idea of that particular Puma.Just be patient and wait for the right one and if you need to, get it inspected by a independant mechanic.As good or as reliable as that Puma may be I would avoid it due to it being a right off, if for no other reason tham you have to inform your insures and as they arent charities they will probably charge you more,and they will use it as an excuse should you ever have to claim to give you less.
Passenger window is a common prob usually dealt with by oiling greasing or adjusting the mechanism/ rubber
Air bag light could be in relation to its write off status,may need a used airbag ecu from ebay, or an ecu reset,either a fairly easy DIY fix. Or pehaps it has an airbag or bags missing?. This I think is going to be an MOT failure
Heater prob is likley HCV heater control valve problem about £45 from fords cheap ebay ones not reccomended, their is a how to guide on doing it here iirc, its fairly easy.Also could be the heater control panel in the dash.
Air con could be it needs repressurising or a pump problem or a prob with the same panel as the heater control is on.Maybe a blown fuse effecting heater and air con?
give the for sale section here a look and piston heads and ebay and auto trader Good luck :thumbs:

 

[kwest]

Thanks for the reply, my gut instinct is telling me no, but my head and heart is screaming YES!!

I'm running an 05 Fiesta diesel at present which is reliable enough, just not very exciting, but hey with 2 kids excitement went out the window a long time ago!!!

I'm definitely gonna sleep on this one I think..............

 

[quest63]

Good idea, we have another newbie here who just bought a Puma from a member so he got to see the cars project thread and hear about any negatives over a period of time and saw what work was done etc.

Oh yes whether the cambelts been done will be an important factor for you to consider as will the condition of the rear arches

 

[red]

Sleep on it, the price for fixing those issues could be cheap but then..maybe not.

At a really quick guess:-

Passenger window sticks and has to be pushed up manually.
- Is the motor power still good? Might need replacing if not? 2nd hand not much money
- Might need adjusting, less money
- Might never get to the bottom of it, free.

Air bag light permanently on.
- Could be the airbag control module £15
- If not then could be a short somewhere meaning an auto electrician etc.. I have the same problem on my Fiesta, not fixed yet.

Heater controls - when set to cold come out hot on all settings.
- Likely to be the HCV £40 for one from Ford, recommended over trying 10 £15 ones from eBay.

Air con not working.
- Could be related to the above
- Might need a service.. ? Not sure of price, £80??

 

[BarryY]

Hi Kwest,

Welcome to the forum, I'm pretty new here too but if I could add a thought or two to assist. I too spent quite some time looking for the right one, and when I did, I managed to pick up a Pacific Green W plate with 90K on the clock, one owner from new and full Ford Service History. £650 with a years MOT. Everything works and I've done 3k since buying it and it its still going well.

I personally would walk away from this one, there are so many more out there. They all will make you fall in love with them, but what you don't want to do is fall out of love with it because you have been sold a shed. Keep looking and come back for advice should you need it, there are genuine people on here with sound and reliable advice.

Good luck with whatever you may do.

Barry

 

[Dannyeff]

I would walk away aswell. I got my puma with 1 lady owner from new. No rust for 1k. Done 100, 000 was a good immaculate model hence the price

 

[lrrhood]

Hi and welcome, all very good advice above,
Know what you mean buy falling for them, I bought the first one I saw, been lucky but could have been a lot worse (had a few niggles), wish I had done like you and signed in here first, Good luck and I would definatelly be lead buy your head, :grin:

 

[slayllian]

£795 dosent seem cheap, I got a similar car for £540

 

[oilburner]

I got my pretty good condition W reg car with 86k on clock a year ago for 895 it's just not worth buying a car that needs money spending on it before you buy as it'll just turn into a money pit. Keep looking as there's plenty of cheap ones out there. I wouldn't give more than £500 for the car you describe if I'm being truthful.previous write offs are worth about 30-40% less than clear cars

 

[bishman]

Also if it was a write off has that been recorded? eg cat c or cat d? I have a feeling that this can affect the insure but i'm not 100%
That would be the thing that would put me off the most

There is a 02 plate thunder on ebay at the moment for £850 or offers which seems pretty good to me

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2002-FORD-PUMA-THUNDER-SILVER-/251123922405?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3a7826f5e5#ht_500wt_1288" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Y0ungn1ck]

As others have suggested, don't buy trouble - there are plenty out there without problems and possibly cheaper too.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

I agree with the others that you'd be best finding another. There are better, cheaper cars out there and this one sounds quite pricey for an ex-write-off with problems.

A few years back it would have been fairly good value but the prices have absolutely crumbled since making them almost pocket money buys!

Get searching and find a better one; you'll love it all the more when you find a gem!